Paint is only the beginning with these 31 DIY kitchen cabinet ideas, which run from a $10 door organizer to plywood cabinets you build from scratch. Most cabinet makeovers mix paint, trim and smarter storage, so you’ll find chalk paint, sprayer and no sprayer painting tutorials, a no sanding method for laminate and a smooth finish trick that hides oak grain. Shaker trim dresses up flat doors (or swap the doors out entirely), and crown molding carries the uppers to the ceiling. Then come the storage fixes: pull out drawers for that awkward cabinet over the fridge, slide out shelves for deep base cabinets, a built in plate rack, a slim rolling pantry and a plan for the dreaded corner cabinet. LED lighting above and below finishes the look. Start with one door and see how fast it changes the room. Need more storage this weekend? These $10 DIY roll outs for kitchen cabinets are a quick win.
1. Fabric Backed Open Kitchen Cabinets
Fabric backed open kitchen cabinets turn dark uppers into a bright display for your dishes, and the whole change can be undone if you move. Take the doors off, fill the hinge holes with wood putty and sand them smooth, then paint the insides if they are dark. Cut foam board to the exact size of the cabinet back, wrap it in ironed fabric cut 3 inches wider and tape the edges behind. Press it into place. Tension holds it, so there is no glue.
Get the full tutorial at Pretty Handy Girl.
2. Chalk Paint Kitchen Cabinet Refresh
Chalk paint kitchen cabinets can skip the sanding and priming that scare most people off. This two year update paints the uppers white and the lowers a soft duck egg blue, brushed on rather than rolled, after a wipe down with dish soap and water to cut the grease. Doors stayed on the whole time. The lowers got three coats of wax for durability, and the full makeover, new hardware included, came to about $170. Use good brushes, since they make the finish.
Get the full tutorial at Our Storied Home.
3. Rustic Modern RV Kitchen Cabinet
Reclaimed wood kitchen cabinets give a small RV kitchen real warmth without a full tear out. Only the doors and drawer fronts were replaced, and the cabinet frames stayed black. The rough boards came from a local lumber yard and were milled thin to save weight on the road, then scrubbed with a wire brush and a steamer and cut with a circular saw. Peel and stick wood planks are an easier route if you want the look with less work. A video walks through it.
Get the full tutorial at Mountain Modern Life.
4. DIY Shaker Style Cabinets
DIY shaker style cabinets can start from plain flat doors, which saves the cost of new ones. Take the doors and hardware off, clean them with a strong degreaser and sand with 80, then 150, then 220 grit. Have the hardware store rip quarter inch plywood into 2.5 inch strips, miter them into a frame and nail the frame onto each door. Wood filler and a final sanding hide the seams before paint. It takes time, but the steps are simple.
Get the full tutorial at The Crafty Blog Stalker.
5. DIY Upper and Lower Cabinet Lighting
DIY cabinet lighting adds a warm glow above and below your cabinets without hiring an electrician. The easy version uses LED strip lights with a sticky back, plugged into outlets you already have, like the one for an over the range microwave or behind the fridge. A small hole cut in the side of a cabinet lets the cord pass through out of sight. Rechargeable motion sensor lights with magnets are even simpler, though they need a charge about once a month.
Get the full tutorial at Thrifty Decor Chick.
6. Upcycled Barnwood Style Sideboard
This upcycled barnwood style sideboard started as two old kitchen cabinets tossed out during an apartment renovation. The flaking paint came off, new tops were built from 1×3 boards joined with a pocket hole jig and the custom doors got a barnwood look from stain, carriage house strap hinges and mission style pulls. There is no full step by step, since the doors were built to fit, but it is great inspiration for giving salvaged base cabinets a second life as a buffet.
Get the full tutorial at Mountain Modern Life.
7. DIY Kitchen Cabinet Door Organizer
A kitchen cabinet door organizer puts paper towels and cleaning sprays right where you need them, and it costs under $10 in lumber. The free plan needs one 1×6 and a short 1×2. Two 18 1/2 inch sides with curved tops sit on a 12 inch bottom, with rails added for strength or a shelf in place of the towel bar. Four small L brackets mount it to the inside of the door. Plan on about half an hour of work.
Get the full tutorial at Ana White.
8. Painted Kitchen Cabinets
Painted kitchen cabinets do not have to mean days of sanding and priming. This guide compares two tested methods. The first uses milk paint with no sanding or priming, takes about four days and finishes with three coats of topcoat, and it held up for more than five years. The second uses mineral paint after a light scuff sand, leaves the doors hanging and wraps in about two days with two topcoats. Each method has a full tutorial.
Get the full tutorial at Kaleidoscope Living.
9. Paint Kitchen Cabinets without Professional Equipment
You can paint kitchen cabinets with a roller and a brush, no sprayer required. Take off every door and piece of hardware, degrease, then sand or degloss before priming. Choose a semi-gloss or gloss paint made for cabinets, since the harder finish wipes clean. Thin coats keep drips away, and a paint conditioner helps a fast drying paint level out without brush marks. Set aside a few weeks if you are working in short sessions. The result looks factory fresh.
Get the full tutorial at The Turquoise Home.
10. Base Cabinet for the Kitchen
Building a base kitchen cabinet is the perfect starter project before you take on a whole kitchen. This plan uses the frameless Euro style, so the doors and drawer front cover the edges of the box. The finished cabinet is 30 inches wide, 34 1/2 inches high and 24 inches deep, with a full width drawer over two doors and an adjustable shelf. The 4 inch base is built separately, which makes leveling much easier. Prefinished maple plywood saves finishing time.
Get the full tutorial at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware.
11. Painted Kitchen Cabinets The Easy Way
Painting kitchen cabinets the easy way comes down to ten clear steps and basic supplies: semi-gloss paint, primer, an angled brush, a mini foam roller, sandpaper, a drill, wood filler and caulk. Remove the doors and hardware and stick a bit of masking tape on the back of each door so you know where it goes. Sanding is the key step, since it removes old paint or a glossy finish. The same process works on bathroom vanities too.
Get the full tutorial at LiveLoveDIY.
12. Open Shelf End Wall Cabinet
An open shelf end wall cabinet is a clever way to finish a run of upper cabinets, especially above a peninsula or bar where a full cabinet would feel heavy and be hard to reach. It is open on the front and the side, so it wraps the corner and gives you a spot for plants, bowls or cookbooks. The free plan includes a cut list, shopping list and diagrams. Paint or stain it to match, and build a second for the opposite end.
Get the full tutorial at Ana White.
13. Build Your Own Kitchen Cabinets
Building your own kitchen cabinets in place, rather than as boxes, solves two problems: crooked old walls and cabinets too heavy to lift alone. Each frame goes up one board at a time, leveled as you go and fastened with 3 inch deck screws, with the top rail screwed into the joists. Vertical boards tie the top and bottom frames together, scrap 1x boards form the bottoms and 1x4s cover the face. Doors cut from smooth 3/4 inch plywood get the same paint and poly finish.
Get the full tutorial at Grandmas House DIY.
14. Kitchen Cabinet Facelift
This kitchen cabinet facelift swaps the solid center panels of upper cabinet doors for chicken wire, for about $10 in supplies. Drill a hole in each corner of the panel with a Forstner bit, rout along the edges to free it and chisel the corners square, then sand. Repaint the raw edges, cut chicken wire to size and staple it in place. Narrow screen molding, mitered with a hand saw and a cheap miter box, covers the cut wire edges on the back of each door.
Get the full tutorial at My 3 Monsters.
15. Kitchen Cabinets Up to the Ceiling
Extending kitchen cabinets up to the ceiling makes builder grade cabinets look custom. Build simple boxes from plywood and screws, one at a time, and set each on top of the existing cabinets to check the fit. Screw them into the wall studs and to each other. With about two feet above the cabinets, 16 inch boxes leave room for a header and trim, and face trim makes them match the lowers. Leave them open for display or add doors.
Get the full tutorial at Thrifty Decor Chick.
16. Plywood Upper Kitchen Cabinets
Plywood upper kitchen cabinets are the easiest way to learn frameless construction, where every part is cut and finished before anything is assembled. Stacks of flat parts store in far less space than finished boxes, and you can carry them to the kitchen and assemble there. All you need is a pair of sawhorses, four to six clamps, a drill, screws, biscuits and glue. Rows of 5mm holes spaced 32mm apart hold the hinges and shelf pins, so every box stays flexible.
Get the full tutorial at Rockler Woodworking and Hardware.
17. Fixer Upper Inspired Kitchen
This Fixer Upper inspired kitchen makeover came in around $300 by working with what was already there. The uppers were primed with a bonding primer and painted soft white, the lowers went charcoal and two doors came off for open shelving. A faux shiplap backsplash is made from peel and stick vinyl floor planks, and the counters got a faux marble paint finish. A $20 secondhand lower cabinet turned an old pantry into a coffee bar.
Get the full tutorial at All Things with Purpose.
18. DIY Canned Food Organizer
A DIY canned food organizer turns the skinny gap beside the fridge into a rolling pantry. This one fits a 6 inch opening and stands 64 inches tall. Build a ladder frame from 1×4 boards with seven shelves, then drill holes just above each shelf and glue in 7/16 inch dowels as rails so cans cannot roll off. Nail on a beadboard back, add four casters rated for at least 50 pounds and a handle, and paint the inside a fun color.
Get the full tutorial at Classy Clutter.
19. Refinishing and Cleaning Kitchen Cabinets
Refinishing and cleaning kitchen cabinets starts with a deep clean, which may be all they need. Number the doors as you remove them, cover counters and floors, and wash with a cleaner such as TSP while wearing gloves and eye protection. Soak greasy hinges and knobs in soapy water for 30 minutes, then scrub and polish. If they still look tired, test a hidden spot to find out what finish you have before buying a stripper, and pick a gel or semi-paste type if the cabinets stay on the wall, since it won’t drip.
Get the full tutorial at Lowe's.
20. Lower Cabinet Drawers
Building lower cabinets with drawers is a modular job: make a series of matching box units, then fit them with slides and fronts. These boxes are cut from 5/8 inch white melamine, with sides sized to counter height minus the counter thickness and a 4 inch kick space, and a bottom that is the box width minus twice the side thickness. Glue edge banding to the front edges, join the parts with dowels about 6 inches apart rather than nails and mount the drawer slides inside.
Get the full tutorial at Dowelmax.
21. Pull-out Drawers in Cabinet above Fridge
Pull-out drawers in the cabinet above the fridge finally make that hard to reach space useful. Measure the inside depth and check that it is level, then add wooden supports on one side so the slides clear the door. In this cabinet the depth was 23 1/2 inches, so the drawers were cut at 22 inches long and 2 1/2 inches high. Subtract 1 1/8 inches from the width for the slides. A tray divider fills the other side.
Get the full tutorial at Remodelando la Casa.
22. Paint Kitchen Cabinets with Chalk Paint
Dark cherry cabinets making the whole kitchen feel gloomy? Chalk paint turns them bright white without the usual sanding and priming marathon. After a good degreasing, chalk paint powder is mixed with water and flat latex paint in a squeeze bottle, then brushed on in three even coats. It dries fast (about 30 to 60 minutes), so there’s barely any waiting between coats. A light pass with 200 grit sandpaper smooths everything, and clear wax buffed on top seals it. Prefer something tougher for a busy kitchen? Polyurethane works in place of the wax.
Get the full tutorial at Craftaholics Anonymous.
23. DIY Slide-Out Shelves
Deep base cabinets are where pots and cleaning supplies go to be forgotten. These DIY slide out shelves bring the back of the cabinet right to you, for a fraction of the $104 a store bought pull out costs. A simple 3/4 inch plywood frame goes in each side of the cabinet first, which clears the face frame and makes the drawer slides easy to line up. The shelves are plain 3/4 inch plywood boxes held with wood glue and instant wood adhesive, no pocket screws needed. Two shelves per cabinet doubles the usable space.
Get the full tutorial at The Navage Patch.
24. DIY Inside Cabinet Plate Rack
Want your prettiest plates on display instead of stacked in a pile? This built in plate rack turns a 20 inch upper cabinet into open kitchen art. Square dowels are drilled every 1.5 inches and filled with round dowels for snug, rattle free slots, and bundling the round dowels with gaffer’s tape lets them be cut four at a time. The rack goes into the cabinet in parts, joined with small unglued dowels so it fits past the face frame. Prime and paint it to match, then take the door off.
Get the full tutorial at Remodelando la Casa.
25. How to Organize Corner Kitchen Cabinets
Corner cabinets are the junk drawers of the kitchen cabinet world, deep and awkward and hard to reach. The fix here is all about round shapes. Mixing bowls, cake plates and small appliances fit the L shaped corner shelves best, while lazy susans and turntables keep spices, oils and vitamins corralled and easy to spin into reach. A lower turntable cabinet handles pots and pans. Adjust the shelf heights to fit what’s stored, keep everyday items low and measure before buying a turntable so the door still closes.
Get the full tutorial at The Homes I Have Made.
26. How to Paint Laminate Cabinets Without Sanding
Laminate cabinets can be painted, and without sanding. The slick plastic surface won’t absorb paint the way wood does, so the trick is a primer coat of chalky finish paint, which grips laminate, followed by a top coat or two of satin enamel. After a thorough degreasing, the faces are rolled and the edges brushed, with the doors left on. Plan on roughly one jar of each paint per 20 square feet. One warning first: peeling or buckling laminate won’t be fixed by paint, so start with surfaces in good shape.
Get the full tutorial at The Palette Muse.
27. How to Install Under Cabinet Lighting
Under cabinet lighting might be the easiest (and cheapest) kitchen cabinet upgrade there is. This guide starts with the questions that matter: is there an outlet in or under the cabinets for wired lights, or is battery powered the way to go? How bright should it be, and how warm? Lower Kelvin numbers glow warmer, so 2700K reads like lamplight while 4500K and up suits a work zone. Small light bars also avoid a runway of reflections on shiny counters. Wired, linkable bars install with just a pencil, a drill and drill bits.
Get the full tutorial at The Palette Muse.
28. Kitchen Cabinet Crown Molding
Cabinets that stop short of the ceiling leave a dusty gap and look unfinished. This crown molding build closes it in four layers. A cove and bead base piece goes on top of the cabinets, flat stock extends them up to the ceiling, then the crown goes in, with dentil molding tucked under the cove. Each section is glued and pin nailed, and a strong flexible construction adhesive holds it where there’s nothing to nail into. Tip worth stealing: hold the crown in place and mark the angles before cutting. Fewer wasted pieces!
Get the full tutorial at Reality Daydream.
29. Replace Kitchen Cabinet Doors and Drawer Fronts
Cabinet boxes still solid but the doors stuck in the 1980s? New doors and drawer fronts change the look for far less than new cabinets. Sketch the kitchen and number every door, measure, then order unfinished shaker doors with the hinge holes already bored. Paint grade doors can be hung on a clothesline outside and sprayed (thin the paint a little with water for a sprayer), and 17 pieces took about an hour. Finish with soft close hinges that match the overlay, usually 1/2 inch on stock cabinets.
Get the full tutorial at Simple Made Pretty.
30. How to Paint Oak Cabinets with a Smooth Finish
Love sturdy oak cabinets but hate that deep grain showing through the paint? The secret is filling the grain first. All purpose joint compound gets spread over the doors and frames, sanded smooth and vacuumed before primer ever goes on. Then it’s primer, a light pass with a 220 grit sanding sponge, and two or three coats of satin cabinet paint, sanding and vacuuming between each one. Label the doors before taking them off (future you will be grateful) and let everything cure about four days before rehanging.
Get the full tutorial at My Wee Abode.
31. Painting Kitchen Cabinets with a Sprayer
A paint sprayer gives kitchen cabinets that smooth, factory style finish brushes can’t quite match. This tutorial covers the whole job on dated oak cabinets: a light sanding with high grit paper, a wipe down with diluted TSP, doors off and masking inside the cabinets and over the counters. The big rule is thin coats. Resist the urge to flood the surface, give each coat a few hours to dry and clean the nozzle if the spray starts spattering. Heads up, paint doesn’t hide oak’s wood grain texture.
Get the full tutorial at Lemon Thistle.
